Dying Cork

J.McDonald Knives

J.McDonald Knives

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Is it possible to dye cork or anything in a luminous color? Or what about in a color that is easy to see at night with a light or in the day time? Needs to be seen while floating in the water and needs to last.
 
Jacob,
Rust-o-leum makes luminous PAINT and glow in the dark PAINTS, but not actual DYES. You could experiment with these and see if they give you a suitable effect. I am guessing this is for your floating knife you were planning a while back?.. How is that coming along. What concepts did you decide to go with?

Lang
 
Doesn't someone here make micarta with glow in the dark powder? You could stabilize the cork with dyed epoxy that has some of that glow in the dark powder in it. Experiment on some wine corks first until you get what your looking for. I don't know how this would work, but it sounded good in my head, in theory.
 
Not cork, but maybe another idea. How about shaping styrofoam 3/32 or 1/8" smaller than the final dimension you want for the handle. Then wrap with layers of fiberglass (or kevlar or whatever). Thin strips would stay pretty tight and conform to the shape pretty well. I would use a good, clear acrylic epoxy instead of fiberglass resin. You could dye the resin or put in the glow powder. You can sand and finish like you would any other handle material.

My Grand Dad used to make hard scabbards for his knifes. Oftentimes he would make the scabbard from a good straight grained wood (with a steel ferrule) and cover with colored epoxy. Sand down to finish size and polish. They looked very nice and were amazingly durable.
 
The resin or epoxy as well as the fiberglass would provide more weight. I have samples of cork coming to see what would work best. Thats why I was looking to see if it is possible to add luminous color to the cork or any color at all. Also wondering how much more weight it would add. Paint would flake off after a while of use and this knife will be used a lot. A lot of the guys who are buying one or testing it out bowfish almost every day if not 3-4 times a week.
 
Could you boil the cork or maybe bleach it in some way?

I've never worked with cork, but if there's a way to whiten the natural color, then you may consider just coloring it with a highlighter type marker...

I know, it's a cheesey, jimmy rigged type of soloution, but the ink from the right kind of marker wouldn't be water soluble, and so it would last nicely and help protect the cork a little.
 
Cork soaks up Superglue like a sponge. Try taking a good amount and adding the glow powder to that before applying it to the cork.
I would try Analine leather dye from Tandy.
Cork repels water very well but not solvent based products.
 
Alcohol based or oil based dyes? I don't want to apply anything to the surface because it would defeat the purpose of the cork being a no slip grip.
 
I would need a glow end cap that is light weight but still very buoyant. Anyone got any links to something that would work?
 
Couldn't you flute the handle, fill the grooves with luminous paint, and seal the surface when the paint is dry ?
 
I think I would use tritium vials. They glow brightly for about 10yrs, and I'm sure they wouldn't hinder the floatation of your knife. You can get them from glowrings.com, and perhaps from other places.

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I still don't know if those would work. To me it would take away from the ruggedness of it. Anyone know if it is possible to dye the cork with a bright or luminous color the same way you would stabilize a set of scales? Something other than painting it because I'm looking at the long term effects. I'm surprised that Stacy hasn't chimed in with an idea.
 
Since you asked:
You should be able to dye cork with any good wood dye. Check out woodcraft for many possibilities. Another good choice would be the leather dyes from Tandy and others. They have some very bright colors -including orange.(see photo of sheaths by nozh2002)

I still think this is not a feasible project, since the buoyancy of cork is not that great,and steel is many times heavier than water. Perhaps titanium for the blade would be a viable option. In any case,the blade to handle ratio will have to be very small (short,thin blade - big fat handle).

Finally, I seriously doubt that you will build any of these knives.
Stacy
 

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Oh ye of little faith. I can't start on them til we get the house on the market cause I still need to set my shop back up.
 
wood dye or leather dye for sure. id play with making the cork lighter (in color) by bleaching it somehow so the dye will be more vibrant. i see where your going with this but i think it will be very difficult. have you played with a piece of steel like the blade your looking for and some cork to see how much it will take to float it? i think it will need to be a small blade for sure.
-Lou
 
I pretty much figured out how big to make the blade but I still don't have any cork yet. I am being sent samples of cork from one company. As soon as I find some suitable cork I will run some tests. I have already tested out a blade about the same size as I was going to use on this knife and it worked nicely. I will keep yall informed with the progress of the knife but as of right now I can't do much at all until mom gets this house on the market because I have moved back in with her to help her and she won't let me set up shop until that time. I am also working on trying to find a job around here. Basically I have too many irons in the fire.
 
J.McDonald Knives said:
Paint would flake off after a while of use and this knife will be used a lot.
Click to expand...

You are dead right. Sorry I was a bit vague.

I am not a regular 'follow the instructions' kind of a guy: I was thinking more along the lines experimenting with thinning it down to different strengths and soaking cork samples in it. You may get a good balance of binder soaking in and fluorescent pigment being bound in place to work relatively nicely. fluorescent stain is not exactly an off the shelf solution so I imagine you will need to do some experiments to find exactly what you are looking for.

I know its probably perfectly safe, but wow I would be kinda nervous having something that glows for 10 to 20 years attached to my keys, in my pocket, next to my testicles. Radio active half-lives and radiation warning signs come to mind! But those do look pretty cool.
 
I will have to see what I can do to the cork. I'm still waiting on the samples to come in. If nothing else I will see about adding a cork pommel and making that the luminous part.
 
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